The disposal of medical waste has, heretofore, been an expensive, time-consuming, hazardous and labor intensive problem. Because medical waste may and often does, contain highly infectious materials, before disposal sterilization is, and has been encouraged. Moreover, government regulations strictly control medical waste from collection to disposal. Severe penalties apply if the regulations are not adhered to. A manifest or record must be kept of each lot or batch of medical waste from collection to disposal, by law. Only certified licensed medical waste haulers are authorized to collect medical waste from medical facilities.
Solid medical waste includes solid, semi-solid and liquid material but does not include domestic sewage materials, as prescribed by law. It includes, for instance, waste from diagnosis and treatment of humans and animals, and in the production and testing of biologicals; cultures and stock of infectious agents and biologicals; waste from the production of biologicals, discarded virus cultures and vaccines and all the glassware and devices used in the foregoing. Human and animal wastes including tissues, organs, body fluids, etc., removed during surgery, research or autopsy, for instance, and all contaminated material such as dressings, bed linen, towels, bags, etc., associated therewith. It includes whole animal carcasses, body parts and bedding of infected animals.
Facilities generating medical waste, e.g., hospitals, clinics, and/or doctors' offices, have devices for sterilizing materials and instruments before use. Most such facilities have a steam autoclave so that the waste which is contained in red leak-proof bags, simply can be placed in the autoclave for sterilization, and the bags are then removed and placed in a waste receptacle such as a barrel or can, or in cardboard boxes, for instance, and picked up by a certified medical waste hauler for disposal.
In practice, for maximum bulk reduction, the medical facility bags and boxes its medical waste, in a cardboard box, for instance, for pick-up by the certified hauler. If the waste is autoclaved (sterilized) the hauler trucks it to a shredding facility and after shredding he loads another truck with the shredded waste, for eventual disposal. Thus, the hauler must load one truck with the sterilized medical waste, drive to a shredder facility, unload the truck, shred the waste, load it onto a second truck and finally dispose of it. Should the medical waste from a facility not be sterilized, the certified hauler must either dispose of it by incineration, an expensive procedure, or he may autoclave the bagged waste and process as above.
Prior Art
The pertinent prior art known to Applicant includes U.S. Pat. Nos. 3,189,286 and 3,192,853, both issued to James E. O'Connor which disclose an apparatus for destroying, disintegrating and disposing of classified documents. Classified documents to be destroyed are placed in locked wheel bins which can be moved into a mobile unit having a shredder device which can receive, and finely divide the classified documents. The shredded documents accumulate in the mobile unit and are disposed of in the customary manner. O'conner's device has a separate engine and does not solve the problem of processing regulated and unregulated medical wastes.
U.S Pat. No. 3,589,276 to Swallart describes a destruction device for hospital use for destroying glass, plastic, paper and metallic articles by grinding and heating. There is not the slightest hint of the present described mobile unit for the shredding, compacting, containing and disposal of regulated medical waste, as described hereinafter.
U.S. Pat. No. 4,009,838 to Tashman also appears of interest because it discloses a portable solid waste shredder for shredding of wet or dry trash, glass, metal cans, cartons, wood, cardboard and synthetic plastics. The shredder device comprises oppositely rotating rotary shredding jaws and may be used in combination with a compactor by providing a discharge opening for the shredded waste at a position relative to ar opening in the site of a compactor directing the shredded waste materials into the compactor to be compacted and baled along with waste materials directly fed into the compactor. Tashman has no concern for the disposition of regulated and unregulated medical waste and furthermore does not even hint at a highway useable unit such as presently described and claimed.
Also of interest is U.S. Pat. No. 4,860,958 to Yerman, which discloses a plastic syringe destruction device employing a cylinder and piston compactor unit together with heat to thermally smash plastic syringes into a compacted mass or slug. During compaction, the syringes are heated to temperatures between 100.degree. C. and 200.degree. C. to melt and sterilize the syringes. This patent discloses only a heating and compacting unit, it has no shredder and does not disclose highway mobility.
U.S Patent No. 3,956,981 to Pitt discloses a device for comminuting refuse into smaller particles which are blended to form an extrudable mass which is extruded through a die to form high-density, low-volume shapes suitable for burying in a landfill.
U.S. Pat. No. 4,961,539 to Deem discloses a heavy duty shredder, mounted on a truck frame, or chassis, for reducing solid wood to chips and a storage container for the chipped wood. The shredder is driven by the vehicle propulsion system. It has no utility for processing medical waste. Deem does not disclose or hint at solving the problem of shredding sterilized medical wastes in a compact, efficient and environmentally acceptable manner as presently described.
No other prior art known to Applicant describes a simple, effective system for the disposal of medical waste and the problems solved thereby a presently described.